Premature Complications could include neuro-developmental disorders such as cerebral palsy, autism, and Down Syndrome, bronchopulmonary distress and disease, failure to thrive, and many other conditions which can physically affect the child throughout life.
A 47-page, detailed summary chart of published studies of over one hundred peer-reviewed studies involving 34 countries stretching back from the present to 1972, noting an Abortion – Preterm delivery/Birth (APB) Link, can be found at Prevent Preterm preventpreterm.org.

Comment: There are many reasons for premature birth, one of which is previous abortion. Abortion can weaken the cervix, so that as the baby gets bigger, the weakened cervix cannot stay contracted, and the mother gives birth too early. There are now over 140 published studies showing a link between abortion and premature birth. Thus, one way to avoid preterm labor & delivery is to avoid abortion. A new paper from the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Pediatrics finds that among premature babies born at 22 to 23 weeks LMP (20-21 weeks post-fertilization) who are given “active” care, 61 to 71 percent survive. This is an even higher survival rate than reported last year by the New England Journal of Medicine, fresh evidence that the “viability standard” is a quickly moving target. The publication came one day after details emerged in the case of a baby being born alive during a failed abortion in Phoenix, AZ. An abortion facility employee can be heard on recently released 911 tapes saying: “The fetus is breathing so we need care for it now…We can’t provide that care except for oxygen and we’re trying to keep the fetus stable until someone arrives.” “A baby was born alive at 21 weeks and rather than being rushed to the NICU, he suffered, awaiting medical care the abortion clinic was incapable of providing,” said Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser. She added: “That this child could die with so little national attention speaks to the callous state of our laws on abortion. The status quo espoused by Hillary Clinton – legal abortion-on-demand,...

Preterm birth is the leading cause of perinatal mortality in the U.S. and is emotionally and financially costly for families even when it does not prove fatal to the child. That there has been significant increase in preterm birth in the U.S. in the last forty to fifty years has made researchers curious as to whether there might be a connection to abortion, legalized in 1973. Science Daily (2/3/16) says “One reason to conduct the study is that the incidence of preterm births has been rising, and falling, in parallel to popularity of abortion, the vast majority of which, until late, have been surgical.” In the last several years, researchers have published multiple studies appearing to demonstrate such a link, but now comes a meta-analysis in a major medical journal which lends strong support to that conclusion. A mega-analysis has more predictive power because it combines the results from multiple studies–in this case 36 studies covering more than one million women. The study, “Prior uterine evacuation of pregnancy as independent risk factor for preterm birth: a systematic review and meta-analysis,” was published in the May 2016 issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology. The authors are Vincenzo Berghella and Lisa Perriera, two researchers from Thomas Jefferson University (Philadelphia), and Gabriele Saccone, of the University of Naples Federico II in Italy. Berghella and his colleagues looked at 36 studies covering the cases of 1,047,683 women. They were looking for data that showed what happened in subsequent pregnancies after some form of “uterine evacuation”–that is, an “induced termination of pregnancy” (surgical or chemical abortion) or the use of some...

Over the past two decades, doctors have made significant progress in saving the earliest premature babies, according to a report issued Tuesday by the Journal of the American Medical Association. Between 1993 and 2012, the study found a “significant increase in survival” of infants born prematurely at 23, 24, 25 and 27 weeks. Rosemary Higgins, program scientist for the neonatal research network at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, explained in an interview: “Extremely pre-term babies born before the 28th week are now surviving in greater numbers.” Higgins pointed to advances in medical care as a reason for the increased survival rates of premature babies: Increased use of surfactant has offered better protection for the newborns’ lungs, and steroids given to mothers in the hours or days before a pre-term birth promote development of lungs, which normally don’t mature until 34 to 36 weeks of gestation. This is not the first study of its kind. A study released earlier this year by the New England Journal of Medicine found that babies born as early as 22 weeks may survive if they are properly treated. Unfortunately, while science is proving that infants at 23 weeks or even 22 weeks of gestation can survive outside the womb, it is still legal to abort such babies in many states, as they are not considered “viable” (able to survive outside the womb). While new evidence is showing that babies may be viable earlier than 24 weeks, the abortion industry continues to push aside such science in favor of “abortion rights.” Even so, The New York Times reports that viability is...

To get a yawn from a premature birth medical expert, tell him/her that any previous medical treatment that raises premature birth risk, also elevates the future risk of the newborn baby having the brain injury that is Cerebral Palsy (CP). That is very established (over 50 years) news, and well known. In 2013, three (3) McGill University doctors, led by Dr. Ghislain Hardy, linked induced abortions (IAs) to significantly raised CP risk.[1, Hardy]; http://www.jogc.com/abstracts/full/201302_Obstetrics_5.pdf How? By finding that women in Quebec (Canada) with prior IAs have 1.45 times the risk of very preterm deliveries (under 32.0 weeks gestation) and about double the risk of extremely preterm births as Quebec women with zero prior induced abortions. Dr. Hardy et al., simply by finding significantly raised premature birth risk, CLEARLY IMPLIED future elevated risk of CEREBRAL PALSY was plausible. IF a study finds that high stress increases the risk that young men will start smoking cigarettes, that by itself without any explicit statement by the research authors, has shown a plausible link between high stress for young men and raised lung cancer risk (via starting smoking). Extremely premature (under 28 weeks gestation) newborn babies have 129 times the CP risk as do full-term newborn babies according to the 2008 ‘study of studies’ by Evelyn Himpens et al.[2, Himpens] The 2013 ‘Hardy’ study is not the only paper to report XPB (extremely preterm birth) risk due to prior induced abortions. The ‘Hardy’ study is the eleventh (11th) such study, with all 11 studies being listed at URL: http://justiceforkids.webs.com/chapter4140studies.htm [3, Rooney] Opposed to these 11 statistically significant studies are a grand total of...

Long-time abortion apologist Dr. David Grimes ridicules the link between abortion and subsequent premature births (“Abortion and Prematurity: A False Alarm” 6/10/15) in the Huffington Post. Yet, the very next [week] there is a press release from a researcher presenting at the annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Lisbon confirming that there is indeed an association between a standard dilatation and curettage (D&C) abortion and an increased risk of prematurity in a subsequent pregnancy (ESHRE release, 6/16/15). [see ESHRE details below this article] The researcher, Dr. Pim Ankum of the Academic Medical Centre of the University of Amsterdam, analyzed 21 cohort studies covering almost 2 million women. Ankum found that D&Cs performed for abortion or miscarriage increase the risk of a subsequent premature birth (under 37 weeks) by 29%, and the risk of very premature birth (under 32 weeks) by 69%. Ankum notes that these statistically significant increases were seen even when measured against control groups of similar women who did not have a D&C prior to pregnancy. (One of Grime’s complaints was that other potential risk factors were not fully considered.) And, Ankum warns, risks were higher for women with histories of multiple D&Cs. As Ankum points out, it is not hard to figure out why there might well be a problem. He suggests that dilating the cervix may result in permanent damage affecting tightness, leading to premature opening in a subsequent pregnancy. Also potentially affected, says Ankum, is the cervix’s anti-microbial defense mechanism, raising the possibility of an ascending genital tract infection, a known contributor to premature birth. What says Grimes...

Editor: A stunning increase in preterm delivery — both intended and unintended — has been happening over the past few decades. Preterm delivery can dramatically increase the risk of Cerebral Palsy in the child. There appear to be two procedures that affect this increase. The first reason is elective induced preterm delivery. A normal pregnancy lasts approximately 40 weeks, measured from last menstrual period (LMP). Many women and couples have decided to push delivery of their babies earlier and earlier to accommodate their personal wishes, apparently unaware that the last few weeks, and days, of pregnancy are critical to complete development of many body organs, such as lungs and brain. One major consequence of early preterm delivery can be Cerebral Palsy. Unfortunately, many physicians have ‘gone along’ with these wishes, possibly to the detriment of the babies. Nationally, the “39-Week Initiative” is spreading to encourage hospitals to write policies that ban elective deliveries prior to Week 39. Slowly, the public is learning about the dangers of early, and very early, preterm delivery, and are realizing that allowing the baby to pick its own birth-date is “worth the weight”. The second reason is induced abortion. There are presently well over one hundred peer-reviewed published studies suggesting a strong connection between abortion and unintended preterm delivery/birth of subsequent children. Some of these studies can be found at this website. Dr. Ellice Lieberman and her Harvard University colleagues reported that Black-American women in Boston with more that one (1) prior abortion nearly double (1.91 times) their risk of premature deliveries. Dr. Lieberman’s study appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine...

The too-high rate of pre-term births and low birth weight babies continues to plague state health agencies. But veteran pro-abortion apologist Dr. David Grimes assures readers in his recent Huffington post entry that any connection of premature births to abortion is merely an invention of “naive” pro-life enthusiasts. Graves is brazenly dishonest. The research into the effects of induced abortion upon future pre-term births began in 1960 and now there are 147 statistically significant studies showing the connection. Many if not most women contemplating abortion wish to get pregnant in the future. Is it not the essence of “informed consent” to make them aware of the possible consequences of that abortion for a subsequent pregnancy? In July 2006, The Institutes of Medicine, which publishes several reports each year, issued a report “Pre-term Birth, Its Causes, Consequences and Prevention.” The IOM cited abortion as an “immutable” factor for pre-term birth. Immutable means the effect cannot be undone; even smoking as a factor for lung cancer is not immutable. Now, granted that the Pre-term report is buried on page 517-518; but it’s still a bombshell! [see IOM details below] Ironically, Grimes was nominated to IOM membership in October 2006. Yet Grimes ignores the IOM finding. As a trained epidemiologist and prolific author, it is unconscionable for Grimes to write there is only a “weak association” between abortion and an increased risk of subsequent premature deliveries and/or low-weight babies. There is such a high number of studies– including two “gold standard” meta-analyses (also called systematic reviews) in 2009—that demonstrate otherwise. The APB link is settled science, according to this excerpt from the...

Consider “Alice” who is pregnant for the first time at age 20 years. Would it be all right if Alice terminates this pregnancy and eventually has a first birth, at say, age 35 years? Stein and Susser would have to agree that, in general, such a decision is fine and healthy. I would argue that when Alice signs the consent form for the termination, she should be informed that delaying her pregnancy by 10 to 15 years substantially increases her relative breast cancer risk. A 15-year delay in first full-term pregnancy increases relative breast cancer risk by 67.3% (absolute increase: 8.41%).2 Krieger wrote, “Conversely, early age at first full-term pregnancy consistently has emerged as the strongest protective factor [against breast cancer].”3 A 10-year delay in age at first full-term pregnancy by terminating earlier pregnancy increases relative breast cancer risk by 41% (absolute increase: 5.13%). PRETERM BIRTH RISK Barbara Luke and Judith Lumley, recognized authorities in the field of premature births, have identified induced abortion as a risk factor for prematurity.4,5 In her book on preventing prematurity, Luke discusses her belief that induced abortion leads to an “incompetent cervix,” 4 whereas Lumley believes that induced abortion causes intrauterine infection and subsequent prematurity.5 In 1992, Daling et al reported that women with previous induced abortions had a 140% elevated risk of intra-amniotic infection in subsequent pregnancies.6 To my knowledge, at least 16 studies show that previous induced abortions boost risk of prematurity.5,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21 Therefore, an elective procedure that Stein and Susser sanction increases the risks of both breast cancer and subsequent preterm birth.22 INFORMED MEDICAL CONSENT In both the United States and...

In this 2014 PROSPECTIVE study, Chinese researchers found that multiple (so-called recurrent) induced abortions nearly triple the risk of PPROM (O.R. = 2.75). In other words: China’s One-Child-Policy is crippling babies: http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Shufeng_Zhou/publication/264791200_Risk_factors_for_preterm_premature_rupture_of_membranes_in_Chinese_women_from_urban_cities/links/54c267e00cf219bbe4e700ae.pdf International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Risk Factors for Preterm Premature Rupture of Membranes in Chinese Women from Urban Cities ABSTRACT Objective: To investigate the prevalence of preterm premature rupture of membranes(PPROM) in urban areas in China and examine the associated risk factors. Methods: A population-based, prospective study was undertaken in 14 cities in China between January 1, 2011, and January 31, 2012. Women were recruited at their first prenatal- care visit, when maternal characteristics were recorded. Risk factors were analyzed by one-way analysis of variance. Results: Of 112 439 women included in analyses, 3077 (2.7%) had PPROM. Univariate analysis showed an increased risk of PPROM before 28 weeks of pregnancy in migrant women (odds ratio [OR] 2.25; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.53 – 3.30; P < 0.001), in those with a history of recurrent induced abortions (OR 2.75; 95% CI1.66 – 4.56; P < 0.001), and in those with a history of preterm birth (OR 3.90; 95% CI 0.77 – 19.61; P < 0.001). The associations were maintained in multivariate analysis (P < 0.001). Conclusion: Migration as a result of urbanization, high rates of induced abortion, and preterm birth are potential risk factors for PPROM in Chinese women. Introduction Preterm premature rupture of membranes (PPROM) occurs spontaneously before 37 weeks of pregnancy. It complicates approximately 3% of pregnancies [1] and accounts for 20% – 30% of all preterm births [2]. PPROM is associated with cerebral palsy...

[Editor’s note. This appeared at Reproductive Research Audit. What follows first is RRA’s introduction to Dr. Davenport’s essay.] Reproductive Research Audit [ http://reproductiveresearchaudit.com/ ] covers studies that address the most controversial topics in reproductive health research, including the long-disputed (but recently affirmed) link between induced abortion and preterm birth, the contested link between induced abortion and breast cancer (ABC link), and the suppression of studies that suggest abortion may contribute to problems in mental health. RRA covers these topics not just in spite of widespread hostility toward researchers and suppression of these findings, but due to the fact that such persecution and censorship is contrary to standards of scientific discourse and intellectual honesty. Today RRA welcomes this guest post from Dr. Mary Davenport who not only expands upon research in these areas but offers her personal account of such censorship in the medical community. This information is even more timely in light of this most recent study that found a 2.8 fold increase in breast cancer risk in relation to induced abortion. RRA is grateful to Dr. Davenport for sharing her article which first appeared at The American Thinker. In the U.S. we are used to abortion advocates claiming that the risk of elective abortion is relatively trivial, and major medical organizations denying any link between abortion and breast cancer. Now a powerful new study from China published [in February 2014] by Yubei Huang and colleagues suggests otherwise. The article, a meta-analysis pooling 36 studies from 14 provinces in China, showed that abortion increased the risk of breast cancer by 44% with at least one abortion, and 76% with...

Abortion – PreTerm Birth risk Link Continue to be Hidden from the Public… Yet, the Abortion-Premature Birth Risk is SETTLED SCIENCE Since the AMA (American Medical Association) and ACOG (American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists) have not formally recognized this risk, they ignore the mountains of studies showing that this risk is indeed real. However, in the 'Court of Medicine' any NEW medical treatment (such as 'suction' abortion in 1958) is presumed 'guilty' of a credible adverse risk until demonstrated 'innocent' of that risk by very strong published evidence. [This is the EXACT OPPOSITE of 'innocent until proven guilty' that applies to a defendant in a court of law.] Thus, it is the responsibility of the AMA & ACOG to show that the Abortion-Preemie risk has been disproven. Can the AMA & ACOG do this? Can they present this burden of proof? Answer: They would have to cite SYSTEMATIC REVIEWS (SRs), the strongest from of medical evidence (i.e. the gold standard), that report NO Abortion-Preemie risk. However, there are a grand total of two (2) Ab-Preemie SYSTEMATIC REVIEWS (SRs), and BOTH of these PROVE the Abortion – Preemie link! BOTH SRs support significantly higher premature birth risk for women with prior IAs [induced abortions]. [1, Swingle; 2, Shah] Thus, the AMA & ACOG are surrounded by the strongest published medical evidence PROVING what they want to ignore, what they are really trying to HIDE… The 'Swingle' & 'Shah' SRs have already yielded SETTLED SCIENCE: Induced Abortions (IAs) raise premature delivery risk. End of Story. AAPLOG & RCOG Recognize the Abortion-Premature Birth Risk...

This is a Commentary that cites several published studies on preterm delivery and premature birth. Preventable Cause of Preterm Delivery/Birth Continues 'Behind Closed Doors' "Terrorism, killing & maiming, is 'OKAY' if done discreetly BCD (Behind Closed Doors)." In 2013 about 80 wanted unborn babies will be killed and 20 will be crippled with Cerebral Palsy (CP) for life in Massachusetts, inflicted via surgical terror. Prove it!!! No problem. In 1987, Harvard University researchers, led by Ellice Lieberman ( <[email protected]> ), reported in the very prestigious New England Journal of Medicine that Black-Boston women with more than one prior IA (Induced Abortion) nearly double (1.9 times) their risk of a future premature baby.[1, Lieberman] 'Preemies', especially those under 32 weeks' gestation, have a higher chance of dying in their first year of life; also, 'preemies' have increased odds of 'MACE' (Mental retardation, Autism, Cerebral palsy, Epilepsy) disorders, plus raised risk of blindness, deafness, respiratory distress, gastrointestinal injury, and serious infections.[2, Behrman] Those newborns under 32 weeks' gestation have 55 times the Cerebral Palsy risk as do full-term newborn babies.[3, Himpens] In October 2007, Dr. Byron Calhoun & colleagues estimated that in the year 2002 prior induced abortions caused: 1,096 U.S. babies under 3 lbs. 5 ozs. (1500 grams) to have CP 4,094 U.S. babies under 32 weeks' gestation died in their first year The 2007 'Calhoun' study has not been challenged in 66 months via 'a letter to the editor'.[4, Calhoun} What is Massachusetts' share of this carnage of 1,096 CP cases & 4,094 infant deaths? Answer: Approximately 2.1% ( 6.65 million / 314 million), which works...

McGill Study: Prior Induced Abortion Raises Premature Birth Risk, & thus the Cerebral Palsy Risk for These Preemies The February 2013 McGill University study by Dr. Ghislain Hardy & colleagues reported that just one prior IA (Induced Abortion) raises very premature birth (under 32 weeks' gestation) risk for Quebec women by 45% (i.e. 1.45 times the risk of a woman with zero prior IAs); two or more prior IAs multiply the risk by 1.73 .[1, Hardy] These very premature tykes have fifty-five (55) times the CP (Cerebral Palsy) risk as do full-term newborn babies. There are now twenty-four (24) significant studies validating the very preterm birth risk of prior induced abortions; arrayed against these 24 studies are a grand total of zero significant studies finding that prior IAs reduce very premature risk. The Abortion-Preemie risk became SETTLED SCIENCE in 2009 via two SYSTEMATIC REVIEWS (SRs).[2, Swingle; 3, Shah] [Competently performed] SRs are the 'gold standard' for settling medical science controversies. The Dr. Hanes Swingle Abortion-Preemie SYSTEMATIC REVIEW found that women with previous IAs have 1.64 times the odds of a very preterm delivery compared to women with zero previous IAs. A co-author of the 'Hardy' study is Dr. Haim Abenhaim, a well published medical author who works at the SMBD – Jewish General Hospital in Montreal, Quebec. ['Hardy' URL: http://www.jogc.com/abstracts/full/201302_Obstetrics_5.pdf ] Autism: the 'new kid on the block' In the 1960s the U.S. Autism rate was roughly 3 kids per 10,000 children. The current U.S. Autism rate is estimated by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) to be one child in 50; URL: http://www.sfgate.com/business/bloomberg/article/Autism-Disorder-Diagnoses-Increase-Among-U-S-4370092.php...

2012 Human Reproduction Journal Study Links Multiple Abortions and Preterm Birth A new study has found that women who undergo multiple abortions have an increased risk of preterm birth in a subsequent pregnancy. According to a report: A new study released from Finland’s National Institute for Health and Welfare finds women who have multiple abortions have a greater risk of premature birth and low-birth weight babies in subsequent pregnancies. The study, printed in the peer-reviewed medical journal Human Reproduction, of more than 300,000 women found women who have three or more abortions face a 35 percent increase in health complications in a future pregnancy and also saw an increase in the risk of a baby’s death around the time of birth. Having just one abortion or more increased the likelihood of giving birth before reaching 37 weeks of pregnancy. “To put these risks into perspective, for every 1,000 women, three who have had no abortion will have a baby born under 28 weeks,” Dr Reija Klemetti, who led the study, told the Scotsman newspaper. “This rises to four women among those who have had one abortion, six women who have had two abortions, and 11 women who have had three or more.” Other new research has found that women who undergo multiple abortions have an increased risk of death. The study, which examined medical records for all women of reproductive age in Denmark over a 25 year period, found that a single induced abortion increases the risk of maternal death by 45 percent compared to women with no history of abortion. In addition, each additional...

[The following are letters regarding the Abortion – Autism connection, dated 23 & 27 January 2012] Abortion & Autism: Furor in the Scientific Realm No later than 1988, abortion was considered a credible contributor to Autism risk. However, some doctors appear to be unaware of this: To: Dr. Lance David Levy, 27 January 2012 Toronto, Ontario M5P 2A9 [Letter sent via REGISTERED MAIL] Copies to: Dr. Prakesh Shah (U. Toronto), Barbara Kay (NP), Melanie Beck (Wall St. Journal), Tom Blackwell (NP), Jon Woodward (CTV), Kyle-Anne Shiver (American Thinker) OPEN LETTER to Dr. Lance David Levy (Toronto, Canada), On 27 October 2011 the [Canadian] National Post newspaper health and medicine reporter Tom Blackwell in an article about the 2011 Dr. Kristen Lyall study about Autism wrote, “Other “complications” of pregnancy, from having an abortion to the mother being at a sub-optimal age for bearing children, also increased odds they would give birth to a child with autism-spectrum disorder”; URL: http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/10/27/blackwell-on-health-study-links-autism-diabetes-in-pregnancy/ (copy of the 27 Oct. Blackwell article attached). In two letters to the National Post (19 Jan. 2012 & 23 Jan. 2012) you adamantly claimed there are zero published studies finding higher Autism risk for children of women with prior IAs (Induced Abortions). Of the 3 statistically significant studies cited in my 20 Jan. 2012 NP letter, you reported on one: you wrote that the 2011 'Lyall' study does not support Autism/IA risk. . You obviously have a hard copy of the 'Lyall' study, but I have attached a copy of TABLE II (5th page of 'Lyall') to this letter. You will notice that in TABLE II “Abortion” is...

Cerebral Palsy in PreTerm Infants: a Population-Based Case–Control Study of AnteNatal and Intrapartal Risk Factors Acta Pædiatr 2002; 91: 946–951. Stockholm. ISSN 0803-5253 Jacobsson B, Hagberg G, Hagberg B, Ladfors L, Niklasson A, Hagberg H Perinatal Center, Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology , Sahlgrensk a University Hospital and 1Departments of Pediatrics, Queen Silvia Children’s Hospital, Institute for the Health of Women and Children, Go¨ teborg, Sweden [ED/BR: This 2002 study showed the 60% higher risk of CP (Cerebral Palsy) for children of mothers with prior IAs (Induced Abortions); yet this information is only found in a table — Table 2 — and there is ZERO mention of any CP/IA risk in the main text. — Brent Rooney (MSc), Research Director, Reduce Preterm Risk Coalition, http://www.justiceforkids.webs.com] Previous studies have indicated that foetomaternal infection increases the risk of spastic cerebral palsy (CP) in term infants, whereas this association appears to be less evident in preterm infants. The aim of this study was to analyse infection-related risk factors for spastic CP in preterm infants. A population-based series of preterm infants with spastic CP, 91 very preterm (<32 wk) and 57 moderately preterm (32–36 wk), born in 1983–90, were included and matched with a control group (n = 296). In total, 154 maternal, antenatal and intrapartal variables were retrieved from obstetric records. In the entire group, histological chorioamnionitis/pyelonephritis, long interval between rupture of membranes and birth, admission–delivery interval <4 h and Apgar scores of <7 at 1 min just significantly increased the risk of CP, and Apgar scores of <7 at 5 and 10 min were strongly associated with an increased risk....

Study Links Autism, Diabetes in Pregnancy Though progress is being made, scientists still know relatively little about what causes autism, or why rates of the disorder seem to be increasing. A new Harvard University study, not reported on until now, offers an intriguing clue, suggesting that women who have had gestational diabetes – diabetes that crops up during pregnancy – are twice as likely to have an autistic child. Other “complications” of pregnancy, from having had an abortion to the mother being at a sub-optimal age for bearing children, also increased the odds they would give birth to a child with autism-spectrum disorder. The results were reported by Kristen Lyall and other scientists from the Harvard School of Public Health recently in the journal Autism Research. The researchers looked at data from Nurses Health Study in the U.S., which is tracking various health issues for a group of about 116,000 nurses. The women were asked in 2005 whether they had had an autistic child. Of about 66,000 pregnancies, there were 793 cases of ASD. Then the study looked at pregnancy-related factors that could be connected. Jumping out was gestational diabetes; after filtering out age-related and other factors that could skew results, women who had had the condition during a pregnancy were 75% more likely to have an ASD child, as were those who gave birth when less than 20 or more than 30. The more pregnancy complications, the more likely they were to have an autistic child. The links found by the researchers are just statistical, so do not prove a cause-and-effect relationship. But the authors theorize that nutritional...

Prenatal and Perinatal Risk Factors for Autism Journal of Perinatal Medicine 27 (1999) 441-450 Larry Burd, Ph.D., Robin Severud, Jacob Kerbeshian, Marilyn Klug, University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences… [This is from a PDF of a 1999 study by Prof. Larry Burd which reported that women with prior IAs (Induced Abortions) triple their risk of a later newborn diagnosed with Autism. — Brent Rooney (MSc), Research Director, Reduce Preterm Risk Coalition, http://www.justiceforkids.webs.com] ABSTRACT Aim: To identify pre- and perinatal risk factors for autism. Method: Case control study. We matched names of patients from North Dakota who met DSM criteria for autism, a pervasive developmental disorder, and autistic disorder with their birth certificates. Five matched controls were selected for each case. Results: Univariate analysis of the 78 cases and 390 controls identified seven risk factors. Logistic modeling to control for confounding produced a five variable model. The model parameters were X2 = 36.6 and p <0.001. The five variables in the model were decreased birth weight, low maternal education, later start of prenatal care, and having a previous termination of pregnancy. Increasing father's age was associated with increased risk of autism. Conclusion: This methodology may provide an inexpensive method for clinics and public health providers to identify risk factors and to identify maternal characteristics of patients with mental illness and developmental disorders. Discussion In a case control study (univariate analysis) of 78 cases of autism and 390 matched controls we identified seven significant variables in this study which were: birth weight, apgar score at one and five minutes, mother's education, father's age, the trimester prenatal care...